Greg's Tutoring NYC is making available a number of our YouTube livestreams pertaining to the how SHSAT scoring occurs.

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For some details regarding recent SHSAT cutoffs, see https://www.GregsTutoringNYC.com/shsat-cutoffs Some of our videos discussing various aspects of SHSAT scoring follow:

My practice test score is XX/57 Math YY/57 ELA, is that any good?

SHSAT scoring is an organic process with the scores generated and created anew each year. To boot, we don't have the exact algorithm and we don't have access to any of the possible software flow of control and control knobs that may exist and be adjusted. Therefore, if you will, for us (that is, we are not the DOE)

    determining scoring and scores is by definition more art than science.

That said, the ebb and flow of historical trends leans on that on average you traditionally want to be pushing from about 70% and above on each section of the SHSAT 8 to receive an offer. This is a simple, naive, inexact statement. This does not guarantee you an offer, very far from it, especially as that value is around a starting point, and does not consider any specific SHS (specialized high school).

The key words here are starting and inexact. It could be 68% or 72%. And so on. Furthermore, it means you have to do better than that. There are no rose colored glasses here. I am not saying anything else than what I'm saying. That's usually just you at the window looking in, barely having even one toe in the door.

This means that you need to be higher than that. How much higher? Ah, well, see, the aforementioned inexactness continues inexact. But if we're being pragmatic, you'd see, realize, and agree that perhaps you'll usually be needing at least 75% to start getting offers for all intents and purposes. Again, note that an operative key word here is still start, and another is perhaps. There are no guaranteed numbers here. And past information does not determine future numbers.

Some possible examples:

50/57 math 50/57 ELA; both are ~87%; this is most likely good enough

40/57 math 35/57 ELA; math is ~70% and ELA ~61%; this is prob not enough

35/57 math 30/57 ELA; ~61% math and ELA is ~51%; most likely just not enough

35/57 math 37/57 ELA; ~61% math and ELA is ~64%; most likely just not enough

50/57 math 30/57 ELA; ~87% math and ELA is ~51%; this is prob barely a start

40/57 math 40/57 ELA; math is ~70% and ELA is ~70%; this is prob barely a start

43/57 math 43/57 ELA; math is ~75% and ELA is ~75%; this might have a foot in some doors

Note that I am not considering field questions for purposes of this discussion because we do not have the benefit that the DOE has in knowing which are the field questions. Therefore on our end, we must consider all questions (there are possible optimizations to this statement but this is a top level overall simple naive discussion). This is why I am not giving any examples out of 47. And usually neither should you. We neither have that foresight nor that hindsight.

Note that "good enough" just means having a foot in the door, any door. The whole discussion about which SHS is even slipperier than this one, as is the scoring dynamics for SHSAT 9. For instance, for SHSAT 8, the range you usually want will usually need to be > 70% for starters. That range (80+ raw points) might get you Latin, the cusp of ~75% (~84+) might get you Tech, busting ~75%+ (~86+) might get you Lehman, busting ~77-79%+ (~88+) might get you HSMSE, SIT, Science and York (which leapfrog over each other from year to year), and busting ~86%+ (~98+) might get you Stuy. Consider these as back of the envelope ranges and all that that means and doesn't mean. Although at some point one needs to have a sense of where they are at, these are also in many ways artificial lines in the sand and psychological barriers. Always shoot for way over any of these as they are in no way, shape, or form even close to a guarantee. It depends upon the year and many other factors. This is a fragile question with no unequivocal answer. This gets slippery as you're dealing with 3rd party practice tests, many different forms, many unknowns, practice test X versus Y, field questions, 8 vs 9, and such so you must build in variation. You must also build in wiggle room.

It's also worth noting that practice exams are just that, practice. They are not official exams. Some you might be using are from 3rd parties and unequivocally not official test day tests. This does not mean they "are bad" it just means they are from 3rd parties. Furthermore, this is true even for practice tests available in the DOE Handbooks; they are also not official test day exams either -- think of them as representational examples.

Along with the just expressed thought, as you continue to learn, study, and prep, your score will usually improve. And in that journey, it could also fluctuate. Therefore, as you do the exams, you more closely want to pay more attention to those practices you do later on in your journey, as those would normally be reflecting your strongest proficiency levels. Therefore, as you proceed, you usually want to be leaning on your most recent results, and not necessarily your earlier results. So for instance, use your last 3 practice tests as your gauge. And don't pick the highest, and don't even average them; instead use the lowest of that group as your line in the sand. Doing this establishes a reasonable pragmatic perspective, instead of depending upon a false positive or an outlier.

Again, I am not saying anything else here other than what I'm saying. This is only a discussion. This is not an exact specification because there is not an exact specification to enumerate. Do not read anything else into it. Do not take specific statements out of context.

Note that your SHSAT journey will ebb and flow, and at points might be frustrating or confusing. Your initial practice scores will improve given there is a learning curve not only with being familiar with the SHSAT structure, but also its content. Always keep in mind that while you may want to obtain a top score and set your goals high that many challenging tasks are achieved by breaking things into pieces, and that you need to keep organized. And that your prep should be viewed as a happy, enjoyable learning process and to not get caught up in things.

Regarding paying attention to your practice tests, please note that Greg's Tutoring NYC has extensive sophisticated grading and scoring analysis software starting with intelligent and interactive bubble sheet processing right up to a plethora of analytics yielding many insightful reports. Our software and reports are helpful as a diagnostic assessment tool allowing insights into your prep process to hone your strengths and weaknesses all at a glance whether by concept, question type, section, passage, your pacing, your flow through the exam, pinpointing bottlenecks, etc. All to help you to establish realistic study plans and goals, and to understand your test readiness. If you choose, it's perfect to use in a proctored setting and with no more requirements than an internet connected computer with a browser. We have codified many SHSAT practice exams from 3rd party sources (Princeton Review, McGraw Hill, Barrons, Kaplan, Tutorverse, etc.) as well as many of the forms from the DOE handbooks (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, etc). Contact us to obtain your personalized diagnostic and assessment report!

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